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(Reuters) - Fliers may have a tough time recovering damages for invasive screenings at U.S. airport security checkpoints, after a federal appeals court on Wednesday said screeners are immune from claims under a federal law governing assaults, false arrests and other abuses.

In a 2-1 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are shielded by government sovereign immunity from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act because they do not function as “investigative or law enforcement officers.”

The majority said it was “sympathetic” to concerns that its decision would leave fliers with “very limited legal redress” for alleged mistreatment by aggressive or overzealous screeners, which add to the ordinary stresses of air travel.

“For most people, TSA screenings are an unavoidable feature of flying,” but it is “squarely in the realm” of Congress to expand liability for abuses, Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause wrote.

Now that a precedent has been set, expect this to be used as justification for many other things.

"Holy shit, I ask you to stop being autistic and you debate what autistic is." - spasm

(Reuters) - The father-and-son Oregon ranchers pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump stepped off a plane and embraced their family on Wednesday, more than two years after their sentencing on arson convictions sparked a 2016 occupation of a wildlife refuge.

The 41-day standoff, which began after the ranchers were imprisoned for a second time for setting a fire that spread to public land, stirred the long-simmering dispute over federal land policies in the U.S. West. It turned deadly when police shot one of the occupiers. [nL1N1U60RW]

A crowd of supporters cheered as Dwight Hammond, 76, and his son, Steven, 49, arrived at Burns Municipal Airport in southeastern Oregon. Local officials including a Republican congressman had urged Trump to pardon them.

U.S. Representative Greg Walden, who had sought the pardon, called their release “an acknowledgement of our unique way of life in the high desert, rural West” in a statement on Tuesday. He declined further comment Wednesday.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward, who also petitioned the government to pardon the Hammonds soon after Trump’s election, also welcomed the decision.

“There’s no way we can thank everybody enough,” Dwight Hammond told reporters at the airport as he stood alongside his wife, Susan.

The Hammonds were convicted in 2012. They said they were using standard land-management techniques, but federal prosecutors said that in at least one instance they were trying to hide evidence of their killing a herd of deer.

They were initially sentenced to less than the legal minimum five years in prison by a judge who called that minimum harsh. After prosecutors appealed, a different judge in 2015 ordered the men back to prison for the full five years, sparking protests and the occupation of the nearby Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Dwight Hammond served about three years in prison and Steven served four, according to the White House. They were released from a federal prison in California on Tuesday after Trump’s pardon.

The Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group, called the Hammonds “lawless extremists.”

The pardons are the latest in a series that have raised questions about whether Trump is using his presidential power to reward supporters.

Others who have been pardoned include conservative pundit Dinesh D’Souza who pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws, and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who campaigned for Trump before being convicted in a case regarding racial profiling.

"Holy shit, I ask you to stop being autistic and you debate what autistic is." - spasm

(Reuters) - Fliers may have a tough time recovering damages for invasive screenings at U.S. airport security checkpoints, after a federal appeals court on Wednesday said screeners are immune from claims under a federal law governing assaults, false arrests and other abuses.

In a 2-1 vote, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners are shielded by government sovereign immunity from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act because they do not function as “investigative or law enforcement officers.”

The majority said it was “sympathetic” to concerns that its decision would leave fliers with “very limited legal redress” for alleged mistreatment by aggressive or overzealous screeners, which add to the ordinary stresses of air travel.

“For most people, TSA screenings are an unavoidable feature of flying,” but it is “squarely in the realm” of Congress to expand liability for abuses, Circuit Judge Cheryl Ann Krause wrote.

Now that a precedent has been set, expect this to be used as justification for many other things.

On reflecting on how his rhetoric while protesting abortion clinics and doctors may have contributed to the violence toward abortion providers, such as Dr. David Gunn, who was murdered in 1993; Dr. George Tiller, who was was wounded in 1993 and murdered in 2009; and Dr. Barnett Slepian, who was murdered in 1998

his became more about us, about me, about our need to win, to win the argument, to win on legislation, to win in the courts. I will tell you that my acceptance of that responsibility had to come only after a long period of reflective prayer, of listening deeply to those who were gravely affected by those murders, in therapy with my own — I will be careful to say — Christian therapist, who helped me come to terms with what really happened and how I may have contributed to those acts of violence through my rhetoric, and eventually in a confrontation, a very loving one but nonetheless an encounter, a very strong, very powerful encounter, with the relative of one of the doctors shot and stabbed. ... And it was ... actually at a Passover Seder table when I was confronted very gently and very lovingly by a relative who happened to be a rabbi of that one abortion provider. In that moment, I realized my own culpability in those in those terrible, terrible events.

On the evangelical support of Donald Trump

I think it's a grave error. I think it has compromised our spiritual and moral integrity. In fact, I entitled my chapter on Donald Trump, "Donald Trump and the moral collapse of American evangelicalism." I think it's a Faustian bargain with Donald Trump, and I think it may lead to the demise of American evangelicalism as we have known it. But my hopeful thought is that, that as the phoenix arises out of the ashes, so a new evangelicalism will emerge, mostly led by a new younger generation of evangelicals that are truer to the faith that is at the center of evangelicalism.

On what he hears from some politicians who voted for Trump but have doubts

I would never name names ... but I have heard that many times over. You know, "I can't embrace him," sometimes even say very vulgar things about him, certainly paint him as a reckless, irresponsible and deeply offensive individual. I've heard even top level officials including members of Congress call him "insane, crazy, a lunatic — but he's our lunatic, and he's going to help us achieve our objectives," and they're willing to make that deal. To me, that equates to selling one's soul.

"Holy shit, I ask you to stop being autistic and you debate what autistic is." - spasm